Thread by @makiwi

Well this is my ramen rant -ish.

- Ramen is soul food in Japan. I know its origins are in China, but, just like phở has origins in China/France but is totally Vietnamese, ramen is totally Japanese. 1/

- Saying something like 'the best ramen comes from [insert region]' is just silly. Everyone has their own favorites. The kind of ramen you want to eat can change from how you're feeling that day, etc. etc. No one eats just one type of ramen. 2/

- Thick milky tonkotsu ramen, which comes from northern Kyushu, happened to be very popular at the time ramen sort of exploded in North America, but it's not THE ONE AND ONLY ramen by any means. Actually...it's not my favorite. 3/

- Oh and btw tonkotsu 豚骨 means 'pork bones' and tonkatsu 豚カツ means 'breaded deep fried pork cutlet'. If you confuse the two I will give you a wedgie. 4/ (tonkatsu and tonkotsu ramen usually don't go together.)

(that was 4/)

There are tons and tons of different ramen types. The one that a lot of Japanese people cite as a standard great ramen is Kitakata ramen, from Kitakata in Fukushima prefecture. It's a light clear pork/chicken/etc based soup w/soy sauce. It established the classic toppings...5/

...of menma (preserved bamboo shoot), char siu made w/pork belly, chopped green onion, etc. They say there are 120+ ramen shops in Kitakata, which has a pop. of just 37,000. It's one of the 3 Great Ramens (who decides these things?) of Japan. 6/

Another of the 3 Great Ramens is Sapporo style ramen. This has a rich soup base with pork bones/etc. and often has lots of lard added. The famous kind has miso added but it can be soy sauce or shio (just salt added to the soup) based too. The noodles are always crinkly.

You can see 3 classic Sapporo ramen toppings in the previous pic; ni-tamago (a boiled egg marinated in a sauce); corn and butter. You see the egg in other types of ramen too but the butter and corn say Hokkaido/Sapporo. 9/

Incidentally, the instant ramen brand Sapporo Ichiban was introduced by Sanyo Foods in 1966. Why Sapporo? Because in the 1960s-70s, Sapporo ramen was the king of ramen. (Sanyo Foods is not a Hokkaido company at all.) 10/

The 3rd of the 3 Great Ramens is Hakata ramen, from Fukuoka. This is tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen, where the bones are cooked so long that the soup becomes milky. The other characteristic of real Hakata style ramen is the thin, *straight* noodles. 12/

Is there an instant ramen with straight noodles? Why yes there is. It's Bo Ramen (stick ramen) and is manufactured by Marutai, who are based in Fukuoka. It's considered a regional variation - crinkly noodles are the standard elsewhere. 13/

These are arguably the 3 great classic ramen types. There are of course many others, mostly more recent introductions. For instance Jiro style ramen originated from a ramen restaurant chain called Jiro. A typical Jiro style ramen. 14/

Jiro style ramen is characterized by the huge mound of bean sprouts on top and the thick, chewy crinkly noodles. But the thing with Jiro style ramen is that it's very customizable - you can add back fat, garlic, more or less char siu, etc. etc. It is filling. 15/

Another type of ramen is Yokohama Iekei or Iekei ramen, which appeared in the '70s. This has a clear soy sauce pork based soup, thick straight noodles, and often has nori stuck in it. You dissolve the nori in the soup as you eat, more or less. 15/

A fairly recent (I think it started to get popular in the 2000s or so) is Tori Paitan (鶏白湯) ramen. This seems to be a reaction of sorts to tonkotsu, but instead of pork bones chicken bones are the main soup base. It is hearty but not as rich as tonkotsu.

Tsukemen is a kind of variation of ramen in soup, where the noodles (usually thick ones) are dipped in a rich concentrated soup/sauce. It's been around for a while but really got popular in the 2000s onwards or so.

Aburasoba ('oil soba') is yet another variation. This is a soup-less ramen, where an oil based sauce is mixed with the noodles. It also has been around for a while but got popular in the 2000s or so.

And about the name, ramen. That is the latest evolution of the name for this type of noodle really. In the past it was called Chuuka soba (Chinese soba), Shina soba (China soba) and Nanking soba (Nanking soba) too. Some places still called it Chuuka soba.

(If an article about ramen history doesn't know those old names it's written by a poser.)
And there's that other variation too which is like a hybrid of ramen and lo mein, yakisoba. For that I'll point you to my article about it back in May.
japantimes.co.jp/life/2019/05/1…

Fun fact: you don't really find ramen cookbooks for home cooks in Japanese, because ramen soup requires a lot of ingredients/time/effort, and eating out ramen is so cheap. There are more books aimed at ppl who want to open their own ramen-ya. Plus instant ramen.

There are many many many other variations of ramen.
But stopping now.
BTW, my base in Japan is a short train ride from the Shin Yokohama Raumen (Ramen) museum. I used to have an annual pass, until I had to give it up for health reasons. ^_^; One of my faves back then.